The Lakeview restaurant, quietly nudged between a 7-Eleven and a nail salon at 3702 N. Broadway, is the brainchild of a pizza Olympian — well, sort of.

Panino's owner, Gino Rago, was one of 17 people on this year's U.S. Pizza Team, a group that represents the country at a competition in Italy among the world's pizza makers.

He was selected for the first time this year, competing in a Neopolitan pizza category and a general pizza category at the World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy, last month. Next year, he'll be competing again.

Rago started seeing Bruno more at trade shows afterward, and this year, Bruno recommended to PMQ that Rago be added to the team. Others join after winning regional competitions.

Besides contests in taste categories like best gluten-free pizza and best Neopolitan-style, contestants vie to be the fastest pizza maker or the best at "pizza acrobatics."

"We keep our eye out for up-and-coming pizza makers as well as seasoned veterans," PMQ's Brian Hernandez said in a story about Rago's appointment. "If you have skill in the kitchen, we are interested."

For Rago, the experience was unlike any other he'd had since he started making pizzas with his Italian immigrant parents at age 12.

In lieu of an Olympics village, a small hotel where everybody roomed with strangers on single beds just inches apart from each other served as the digs for the U.S. Pizza Team during their week together. And in place of matching Ralph Lauren sweaters, each competitor donned matching windbreakers outside the kitchen and white chef jackets while in it.

But like the Olympics, the two-day event is a high-pressure situation.

The competition is in a large venue similar to McCormick Place, with more than 600 other busy people from 30 different countries.

Though much of the dough prep and gathering of supplies happens before the competition, the ultimate judgment comes after a pizza dough is rolled out, topped off and cooked in a tense 15 to 20 minutes on a stage, Rago said.

Judges watch. Competitors watch. Cameras watch.

"I make pizzas here in front of people," he said, "but it's nothing like where you're on TV and they’re taping you and stuff."

But Rago said he had a solid performance and was happy with his scores.

And even though individuals on the team were competing against each other, too, Team USA got to know each other and ultimately helped one another in Italy.

Now, Rago said, he has a better feel for the judge's tastes for next year's competition. His entry to a classic pizza competition had Ndjua salami, arugula, two kinds of cheese and two kinds of tomatoes.

He suspects the judges looked for fewer ingredients in winning pies, he said.